Background

Great Yarmouth Borough Council has a proud history of collaboration with communities, Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations, public and social sector bodies and businesses.

  • Community Development Work is instigated in Great Yarmouth via Single Regeneration Budget resources.
  • Neighbourhood Renewal Fund awarded to Great Yarmouth, scaling up Community Development Work.
  • Neighbourhood Management pilot ‘Comeunity’ is launched by GYBC in priority wards via the Safer Stronger Communities Fund.
  • Communities take the lead in shaping and developing a neighbourhood plan; engagement and capacity building is led through the VCS and the programme is supported by a multi-agency partnership. There is a Resident majority on this board.
  • PCSOs co-located with neighbourhood team, for collaborative frontline delivery with Community Development Workers.
  • Participatory Budgeting is piloted across Great Yarmouth’s urban wards and rural parishes.
  • ‘Comeunity’ wins ‘Best Local Impact’ award from International Journal of Neighbouhood Renewal.
  • Successes from ‘Comeunity’ are used to inform the roll out of two further Neighbourhood Management programmes, ‘MESH’ and ‘Make it Happen’, located in the borough’s other priority urban wards.
  • The Working Neighbourhoods Fund is delivered through the Neighbourhood Management model, focussing on employability work in communities.
  • Great Yarmouth Borough Council is one of 18 councils to be awarded ‘National Empowering Authority 2008-2010’ status through the Improvement and Development Agency.
  • The GYBC Neighbourhoods and Communities team is formed and Neighbourhood Management is embedded into the council’s core infrastructure.
  • Participatory Budgeting is delivered through all Neighbourhood Management programmes, funding grass roots projects and community self-help groups.
  • Reaching Communities funding is awarded to GYBC working with VCS organisations to build upon community work.
  • GYBC’s Neighbourhoods and Communities team, plus front line VCS delivery partners adopt Asset Based Community Development approaches, underpinning all delivery through the neighbourhood infrastructure.
  • Community Budgeting is developed for innovative young people’s employment projects, pooling partner budgets. One project supports over 70 people into employment in 12 months.
  • European Coastal Communities award finalists- Employment and Skills, and Neighbourhood Working categories.
  • The SEA project is launched, combining business start-up support with Social Enterprise guidance, co-locating employment advisors neighbourhood offices.
  • Great Yarmouth becomes an Our Place area, achieving ‘breaking new ground’ status in response to Community Budgeting and the neighbourhood working model.
  • Family Connectors project is piloted supporting ‘troubled families’ through linking people to improved street level networks.
  • Family Connectors external evaluation showed an increased number of people residents can ‘call on’ in their community, increased participation, confidence, employability and wellbeing.  
  • The Family Connectors model is adopted by a neighbouring authority for their Early Help work.
  • Delivering Differently in Neighbourhoods funding is awarded to GYBC from the DCLG to align and integrate Norfolk County Council Early Help delivery with the local neighbourhood infrastructure and community development practice.
  • Great Yarmouth Launches the Early Help multiagency Hub, co-locating a wide mix of statutory and VCS frontline delivery practitioners.
  • Neighbourhoods that Work is launched, funded through Big Lottery Fund for three to five years, developing a multi-faceted approach to building stronger communities.